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Saturday, September 29, 2012

I am sick and tired of Linux desktop articles

I wrote this some time ago and just never posted it. Primarily because I wrote it in a fit of annoyance and it shows my elitist tendencies. I don't absolutely feel this way, just sometimes.

Like clockwork every few months someone publishes an online article on why Linux has not "made it on the desktop" or what Linux needs to do to make it on the the desktop. This usually is in the form of "in order for Linux to become widely accepted by the masses of Joe six packs it must have feature X" or because of the lack of feature X Linux will never succeed on the desktop. What is assumed in nearly all of these articles is that it is desirable to have the proverbial Joe six pack using Linux.

Well it ain't! It never was and I am sick and tired of hearing about it. Linux was and is an operating system built by hacker for hackers. If you can use it and you are not a hacker bully for you but make no mistake it was not meant to be. By hacker I do not necessarily mean some malcontent with computer skills or even a master programmer. I mean a power user, someone that knows how their computer works and takes an interest in how it works and is not afraid of it. Linux is for the tinkerer not Joe six pack whoever that is.

I don't care if Linux ever gets more then its current 1% and frankly I don't see how it could. 1% is about right for the proportion of users that fit the description of a hacker I provided. All I care about is does it work for me. Is it a modular configurable system that gives me complete control over how it operates. If that is something you don't care about or care for know that I likewise don't care if you don't use it.

Now some people at this point will invoke Canonical and their distribution Ubuntu. Well lets make a few facts clear. One in the 8 years of its existence Canonical has not made one cent of profit. Second very few actually use their distro as they intend. They use Kubuntu, or Xubuntu or some other dirivitive. We want polished Debian with up todate proprietary video drivers, we don't want Unity or your ego Mark Shuttleworth!

Linux is a hacker OS for hackers, it is not a mainstream desktop OS, was not meant to be, will never be, so stop asking it to be, expecting it to be or whining that it is not. I have a modest request for all you Linux evangelists, please shut the hell up already! The masses don't care and you are annoying the real power users.